RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



COLLEGIATE CHURCHES 



195. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. 

 JOHN THE EVANGELIST, BEVERLEY 



In the preface to the Provost's Book, written 

 about 141 7, the earliest foundation of the 

 church is said to have been in the time of King 

 Lucius, towards the middle of the 2nd century. 

 The writer goes on to say that it was destroyed 

 by Horsa and Hengist, refounded as a monastery 

 of black monks and nuns and seven secular 

 priests by St. John of Beverley, destroyed by the 

 Danes under Hubba and Hingwar, and recon- 

 stituted and augmented as a college of seven 

 canons regular by King Athelstan.^ Nothing is 

 known of the constitution of the monastery 

 founded by St. John of Beverley in the later 

 part of the 7 th century. Nor can it be actually 

 proved that St. John's Monastery, which Bede, 

 his contemporary, calls Inderawuda {in silva 

 Deirorum), where he was buried in 721, was at 

 Beverley.^ The destruction of St. John's 

 foundation by the Danes is vouched for by 

 history as little as the destruction of the mythical 

 Romano-British church by the Saxons.' Athelstan 

 was regarded throughout the Middle Ages as the 

 real founder of the college, who, by the charter 

 whose grants are summed up in the phrase ' Swa 

 mikel fredom giue I the, Swo hert may think or 

 eghe see,' conferred on the church its privilege of 

 sanctuary, its due of four thraves from each 

 plough in the East Riding, and other well- 

 known features of its franchise.* The story of 

 Athelstan's visit rests, however, on no con- 

 temporary record ; * while his charter is found 

 in no form earlier than the 13th century, and 

 summarizes privileges which were granted by 

 later sovereigns. 



' Text printed in Beverky Chapter Act Bk. (Surt. 

 See), ii, 305-6. 



' Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. v, cap. 6. See for a full 

 discussion of the identification of Inderawuda with 

 Beverley, Chapter Act Bk. (Surt. Soc), i, pp. xv-xix. 



* Simon Russell calls Hingwar and Hubba ' filios 

 Swayn, regis Danorum ' {Beverley Chapter Act Bk. i, 

 p. xviii.) He also seems to have imagined that the 

 church of Beverley was dedicated to the Archbishop 

 St. John, 



* The original charter (Cott. Chart, iv, 1 8) is 

 printed in Chapter Act Bk. (Surt. Soc), ii, 280-7, 

 with a translation into modern English. The phrase 

 ' Swa mikel fredom,' &c., appears in several forms. In 

 a grant of Henry IV to Archbishop Scrope for re- 

 moving certain ambiguities in the charter (23 Aug. 

 1404 ; Col. Pat. 1401-;, p. 395) it is ' Als fre make 

 I the as hert may thynke or eghe may see ' (cf. Cal. 

 Pat. 1422-9, p. 86). 



* The earliest authority seems to be William Ketell 

 (see note 36 to ' Eccl. Hist. ' above, p. 4. The 

 various accounts are discussed by Leach, Chapter Act 

 Bk. (Surt. Soc), i, p. xx et seq. 



A small body of secular clergy may have been 

 gathered together, many years before the Norman 

 Conquest, in the church of St. John the 

 Evangelist, which contained the tomb of St. 

 John of Beverley, in the principal town of the 

 East Riding.* The canons of Beverley received 

 their first authentic royal charter from Edward 

 the Confessor.^ The last three Saxon Arch- 

 bishops of York seemed to have placed the 

 canons on the footing of a corporate body with 

 landed property. iElfric caused a shrine to be 

 made for the saint, and obtained estates in 

 the East Riding for the church.* Cynesige 

 built a high tower of stone at the west end of 

 the church.' Ealdred built a new presbytery, 

 and decorated the whole church with painting 

 and splendid furniture. He finished the frater 

 and dorter, which ^Ifric and Cynesige had 

 begun, and granted new endowments of land to 

 the chapter.^" The authentic history of the 

 college, with its body of canons, and their com- 

 mon residence, the Bedern,^^ may be said to 

 begin at this point. It is not unlikely that an 

 unscientific age, searching for a royal founder, 

 may have hit upon Athelstan as a king whose 

 reign had exercised a unifying force on Britain, 

 and was remembered as a landmark in its history.^^ 



° Folcard, the biographer of St. John {Hist. Ch. of 

 Tork) [Rolls Ser.], i, 239 et seq.), writing soon after 

 the Norman Conquest, says that he was buried at 

 Beverley in St. John's (Bede, loc cit. says St. Peter's) 

 porch. The author of ' Chron. Pontif.' {Hist. Ch. of 

 Tork [Rolls Ser.], ii, 329) also says that he died at 

 Beverley, and speaks (ibid. 238) of the monastery of 

 Beverley, which he had rebuilt from the foundations. 

 Neither writer mentions Inderawuda. 



' The chief charters of the church are as follows : — 

 (i) Edward the Confessor (no date) ; (2) William I 

 (no date) ; (3) Henry I (no date) ; (4) Stephen, 

 1 135 {Chapter Act Bk. [Surt. Soc], ii, 288-9); 

 (5) Henry II ; (6) John, 8 Oct. 1202 and others ; 

 (7) Henry III, 26 Apr. 1242 [misprinted 20 Apr. in 

 Cal Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 269]; (8) Edward I, 

 inspeximus and confirmation, 26 June 1297 {Cal. 

 Chart. R. 1 257-1 300, p. 468); (9) Edward II, 

 inspeximus, 7 Sept. 1310 (Ca/. Pat. 1307-13, p. 

 286); (10) Edward III, inspeximus, 30 Nov. 1330 

 (ibid. 1330-4, p. 21) ; (11) Richard II, inspeximus, 

 10 Feb. 1377-8 (ibid. 1377-81, p. 120), and 

 26 Apr. 1382 (ibid. 138 1-5, p. 118) ; (12) Henry 

 IV, inspeximus, i Mar. 1400-1 (ibid. 1399-1401, 

 p. 456) ; (13) Henry V, inspeximus, 25 Nov. 141 3 ; 

 (14) Henry VI, inspeximus, 13 Mar. 1427-8 (ibid. 

 1422-9, pp. 490, 491) ; (15) Edward IV, 21 Feb. 

 1472 (ibid. 1467-77, p. 309). 



' Hist. Ch. of York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 343. 



Mbid. 344. ■» Ibid. 353-4. 



" For the origin of this word, see account of the 

 Bedern at York. 



" In the same way, Edgar the Peaceable was 

 reckoned as the founder of Southwell, Tamworth 

 St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, and other Midland colleges. 



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